che seggendo in piuma "Another, who had great experience of the world and of literature, observes, that literary men (and artists) seek an intercourse with the great from a refinement of selflove; they are perpetually wanting a confirmation of their own talents in the opinions of others, (for their rivals are, at all times very cruelly and very adroitly diminishing their reputation;) for this purpose, they require judges sufficiently enlightened to appreciate their talents, but who do not exercise too penetrating a judgment. Now this is exactly the state of the generality of the great, (or persons of fashion,) who cultivate taste and literature; these have only time to acquire that degree of light which is just sufficient to set at ease the fears of these claimants of genius. Their eager vanity is more voracious than delicate, and is willing to accept an incense less durable than ambrosia. "The habitudes of genius, before it lost its freshness in this society, are the mould in which the character is cast; and these, in spite of all the disguise of the man, hereafter make him a distinct being from the man of society. There is something solitary in deep feelings; and the amusers who can only dazzle and surprise, will never spread that contagious energy only springing from the fullness of the heart. Let the man of genius then dread to level himself to that mediocrity of feeling and talent required in every-day society, lest he become one of themselves. Ridicule is the shadowy Scourge of society, and the terror of the man of genius; ridicule surrounds him with her chimeras, like the shadowy monsters which opposed Eneas, too impalpable to be grasped, while the airy nothings triumph, unwounded by a weapon. Eneas was told to pass the grinning monsters unnoticed, and they would then be as harmless as they were unreal. "Study, meditation, and enthusiasm,-this is the progress of genius, and these cannot be the habits of him who lingers tili he can only live among polished crowds. If he bears about him the consciousness of genius, he will be still acting under their influences. And perhaps there never was one of this class of men who had not either first entirely formed himself in solitude, or amidst society is perpetually breaking out to seek *Not by reposing on pillows or under canopies, is fame acquired, without which he, who consumes his life, leaves such an unregarded vestige on the earth of his being, as the smoke in the air or the foam on the wave.' D'Alemberer la Société des Gens de Let tres et des Grands, for himself. Wilkes, who, when no longer touched by the fervours of literary and patriotic glory, grovelled into a domestic voluptuary, observed with some surprise of the great earl of Chatham, that he sacrificed every pleasure of social life, even in youth, to his great pursuit of eloquence; and the earl himself acknowledged an artifice he practised in his intercourse with society, for he said, when he was young he always came late into company, and left it early. Vitto noble poet, were rarely seen amidst the rio Alfieri, and a brother-spirit in our own the workings of their imagination were brilliant circle in which they were born; deep loneliness of feeling proudly insulated perpetually emancipating them, and one them among the unimpassioned trifiers of their rank. They preserved unbroken the unity of their character, in constantly es caping from the processional spectacle of society, by frequent intervals of retirement." We select, and with peculiar satisfaction, so:ne of the observations on "Literary Honours.” "It is the prerogative of genius to elevate obscure men to the higher class of society; if the influence of wealth in the present day has been justly said to have created a new aristocracy of its own, and where they already begin to be jealous of their ranks, we may assert that genius creates a sort of intellectual nobility, which is conferred on some literary characters by the involuntary feelings of the public; and were men of genius to bear arms, they might consist not of imaginary things, of griffins and chimeras, but of deeds performed and of public works in existence. When Dondi raised the great astronomical clock at the univer sity of Padua, which was long the admira. tion of Europe, it gave a name and nobility to its maker and all his descendants; there still lives a Marquis Dondi dal' Horologia. Sir Hugh Middleton, in memory of his vast enterprise, changed his former arms to bear three piles, by which instruments he had when his genius poured forth the waters strengthened the works he had invented, through our metropolis, distinguishing it from all others in the world. Should not Evelyn have inserted an oak-tree in his bearings? for our author's Sylva' ocea sioned the plantation of many millions of timber-trees,' and the present navy of Great Britain has been constructed with the oaks which the genius of Evelyn planted. If the public have borrowed the names of some lords to grace a Sandwich and a Spencer, we may be allowed to raise into titles of literary nobility those distinctions which the public voice has attached to some authors; Eschylus Potter, Athenian Stuart and Anacreon Moore. "This intellectual nobility is not chimerical; does it not separate a man from the crowd? Whenever the rightful possessor appears, will not the eyes of all spectators be fixed on him? I allude to scenes which I have witnessed. Will not even literary honours add a nobility to nobility? and teach the nation to esteem a name which might otherwise be hidden under its rank, and remain unknown? Our illustrious list of literary noblemen is far more glorious than the satirical Catalogue of Noble Authors, drawn up by a polished and heartless cynic, who has pointed his brilliant shafts at all who were chivalrous in spirit, or appertained to the family of genius. One may presume on the existence of this intellectual nobility, Lom the extraordinary circumstance that the great have actually felt a jealousy of the literary rank. But no rivality can exist in the solitary honour conferred on an author; an honour not derived from birth, nor creation, but from PUBLIC OPINION; and as inseparable from his name, as an essential quality is from its object; for the diamond will sparkle and the rose will be fragrant, otherwise, it is no diamond nor rose. The great may well condescend to be humble to genius, since genius pays its homage in becoming proud of that humility. Cardinal Richelieu was mortified at the celebrity of the unbending Corneille; several noblemen were, at Pope's indifference to their rank; and Magliabechi, the book-prodigy of his age, whom every literary stranger visited at Florence, assured Lord Raley, that the Duke of Tuscany had become jealous of the attention he was receiving from foreigners, as they usually went first to see Magliabechi before the grand duke. A confession by Montesquieu states, with open candour, a fact in his life, which confirms this jealousy of the great with the literary character. On my entering into life, I was spoken of as a man of talents, and people of condition gave me a favourable reception; but when the success of my Persian Letters proved, perhaps, that I was not unworthy of my reputation, and the public began to esteem me, my reception with the great was discouraging, and I experienced innumerable mortifications. Montesquieu subjoins a reflection sufficiently humiliating for the mere nobleman: The great, inwardly wounded with the glory of a celebrated name, seek to humble it. In general, he only can patiently endure the fame of others, who deserves fame himself. This sort of jealousy unquestionably prevailed in the late Lord Orford; a wit, a man of the world, and a man of rank, but while he considered literature as a mere amusement, he was mortified at not ob taining literary celebrity; he felt his authorial, always beneath his personal character; he broke with every literary man who looked up to him as their friend; and how he has delivered his feelings on Johnson, Goldsmith, and Gray, whom, unfortunately for him, he personally knew, it fell to my lot to discover; I could add, but not dimi nish, what has been called the severity of that delineation.* One "Who was the dignified character, Lord Chesterfield or Samuel Johnson, when the great author, proud of his labour, rejected his lordship's sneaking patronage? I value myself,' says Swift, upon making the ministry desire to be acquainted with Parnell, and not Parnell with the ministry. Piron would not suffer the literary character to be lowered in his presence. Entering the apartment of a nobleman, who was conducting another peer to the stairs head, the latter stopped to make way for Piron. Pass on, my lord,' said the noble master, pass, he is only a poet.' Piron replied, Since our qualities are declared, I shall take my rank, and placed himself before the lord. Nor is this pride, the true source of elevated character, refused to the great artist as well as the great author. Michael Angelo, invited by Julius II. to the court of Rome, found that intrigue had indisposed his holiness towards him, and more than once the great artist was suffered to linger in attendance in the anti-chamber. day the indignant man of genius exclaimed, Tell his holiness, if he wants me, he must look for me elsewhere.' He flew back to his beloved Florence, to proceed with that celebrated cartoon, which afterwards be came a favourite study with all artists. Thrice the Pope wrote for his return, and at length menaced the little state of Tuscany with war, if Michael Angelo prolonged his absence. He returned. The sublime artist knelt at the feet of the father of the church, turning aside his troubled counte nance in silence; an intermeddling bishop offered himself as a mediator, apologising for our artist by observing, that of this proud humour are these painters made! Julius turned to this pitiable mediator, and, as Vasari tells used a switch on this occasion, observing, 'You speak injuriously of him, while I am silent. It is you who are ignorant.' Raising Michael Angelo, Julius II. embraced the man of genius. I can make lords of you every day, but I cannot create a Titian,' said the Emperor Charles V. to his courtiers, who had become jealous of the hours, and the half-hours, which that monarch managed, that he might converse with the man of genius at his work. There is an elevated intercourse between power and genius; and if they are deficient in reciprocal esteem, neither are great. The intellectual nobility seems to have been asserted by De Harlay, a great French statesman, for when the academy was once not received with royal honours, he complained to the French monarch, observing, that when a man of letters was presented to Francis I. for the first time, the king always advanced three steps from the throne to receive him.' * "Calamities of Authors. vol. i. "If ever the voice of individuals can recompense a life of literary labour, it is in speaking a foreign accent-it sounds like the distant plaudit of posterity. The distance of space between the literary character and the inquirer, in some respects represents the distance of time which separates the author from the next age. Fontenelle was never more gratified than when a Swede, arriving at the gates of Paris, inquired of the custom-house officers where Fontenelle resided, and expressed his indig: nation that not one of them had ever heard of his name. Hobbes expressed his prond delight that his portrait was sought after by foreigners, and that the Great Duke of Tuscany made the philosopher the object of his first inquiries. Camden was not insensible to the visits of German noblemen, who were desirous of seeing the British Pliny; and Pocock, while he received no aid from patronage at home for his Oriental studies, never relaxed in those unrequited labours, from the warm personal testimonies of learned foreigners, who hastened to see and converse with this prodigy of eastern learning. bility; and a solemn funeral honoured the remains of Klopstock, led by the senate of Hamburgh, with fifty thousand votaries, so penetrated by one universal sentiment, that this multitude preserved a mournful silence, and the interference of the police ceased to be necessary through the city at the solemn burial of the man of genius. Has even Holland proved insensible? The statue of Erasmus, in Rotterdam, still animates her young students, and offers a noble example to her neighbours of the influence even of the sight of the statue of a man of genius; nor must it be forgotten, that the senate of Rotterdam declared of the emigrant Bayle, that such a man should not be considered as a foreigner.' In France, since Francis I. created genius, and Louis XIV. knew to be liberal to it, the impulse was communicated to the French people. There the statues of their illustrious men spread inspiration on the spots which living they would have haunted-in their theatres, the great dramatists; in their Institute, their illustrious authors; in their public edifices, their other men of genius.* This is worthy of the country which privileged the family of La "Yes! to the very presence of the man Fontaine to be for ever exempt from taxes, of genius will the world spontaneously pay and decreed that the productions of the their tribute of respect, of admiration, or of mind were not seizable, when the creditors love; many a pilgrimage has he lived to of Crebillon would have attached the proreceive, and many a crowd has followed his duce of his tragedies. These distinctive footsteps. There are days in the life of ge- honours accorded to genius, were in unison nius which repay its sufferings. Demos- with their decree respecting the will of thenes confessed he was pleased when even Bayle. It was the subject of a lawsuit bea fish-woman of Athens pointed him out. tween the heir of the will, and the inheritor Corneille had his particular seat in the thea- by blood. The latter contested that this tre, and the audience would rise to salute great literary character, being a fugitive for him when he entered. At the presence of religion, and dying in a prohibited country, Raynal in the house of commons, the was without the power of disposing of his speaker was requested to suspend the debate property, and that our author, when he retill that illustrious foreigner, who had writ-sided in Holland, was civilly dead. In the ten on the English parliament, was there placed, and distinguished, to his honour. Spinosa, when he gained a humble livelihood by grinding optical glasses, at an obscure village in Holland, was visited by the first general in Europe, who, for the sake of this philosophical conference, suspended his march. "In all ages, and in all countries, has this feeling been created; nor is it a temporary ebullition, nor an individual honour; it comes out of the heart of man. In Spain, whatever was most beautiful in its kind was described by the name of the great Spanish bard; every thing excellent was called a Lope. Italy would furnish a volume of the public honours decreed to literary men, nor is that spirit extinct, though the national character has fallen by the chance of fortune; and Metastasio and Tiraboschi received what had been accorded to Petrarch and to Poggio. Germany, patriotic to its literary characters, is the land of the enthusiasm of genius. On the borders of the Linnet, in the public walk of Zurich, the monument of Gesner, erected by the votes of his fellow-citizens, attests their sensi parliament of Toulouse the judge decided that learned men are free in all countries; that he who had sought in a foreign land an asylum, from his love of letters, was no fugitive; that it was unworthy of France to treat as a stranger a son in whom she gloried; and he protested against the notion of a civil death to such a man as Bayle, whose name was living throughout Europe. "Even the most common objects are con "We cannot bury the fame of our English worthies-that exists before us, independent of ourselves; but we bury the influence of their inspiring presence in those immortal memorials of genius easy to be read by all men, their statues and their busts, consigning them to spots seldom visited, and often too obscure to be viewed. Count Algarotti has ingeniously said, 'L'argent que nous employons en tabatières et en pompons servoit aux anciens à célebrer la mémoire des grands hommes par des monumens dignes de passer à la postérité ; et là où l'en brule des feux de joie pour une victoire remportée, ils élevèrent des arcs de triomphe de porphyre et de marbre.' May we not, for our honour, and for the advantage of our artists, predict better times for ourselves? secrated when associated with the memory of the man of genius. We still seek for his tomb on the spot where it has vanished; the enthusiasts of genius still wander on the hills of Pausilippe, and muse on Virgil to retrace his landscape; or as Sir William Jones ascended Forest-hill, with the Allegro in his hand, and step by step, seemed in his fancy to have trodden in the foot-path of Milton; there is a grove at Magdalen College which retains the name of Addison's walk, where still the student will linger; and there is a cave at Macao, which is still visited by the Portuguese from a national feeling, where Camoens is said to have composed his Lusiad. When Petrarch was passing by his native town, he was received with the honours of his fame; but when the heads of the town, unawares to Petrarch, conducted him to the house where the poet was born, and informed him that the proprietor had often wished to make alterations, but that the towns-people had risen to insist that the house which was consecrated by the birth of Petrarch should be preserved unchanged; this was a triumph more affecting to Petrarch than his coronation at Rome. In the village of Certaldo is still shown the house of Boccaccio; and on a turret are seen the arms of the Medici, which they had sculptured there, with an inscription alluding to a small house, and a name which filled the world. It would be no difficult task to make interesting extracts to a much larger extent, did our limits permit. We may, however, fairly trust this amusing essay of the author of "Curiosities of Literature" to the candour of the public-a public that has long since appreciated his talents, and dropped upon his temples the wreath sacred to merit, and more precious than an Olympic crown. G. ART. 2. Considerations on the Great Western Canal, from the Hudson to Lake Erie ; with a View of its Expense, Advantages, and Progress. Re-published by order of the New-York Corresponding Association, for the Promotion of Internal Improvements. 8vo. pp. 54. Brooklyn. 1818. THE HE grand canal of New-York, like the wall of China, will make a visible line on the map of the world, but its chief glory will proceed from a different source-states and perhaps nations will hereafter owe to it their most intimate and beneficial connexions. It is constructed not as a frail barrier between civilization and barbarism, but to promote union, prosperity, and happiness among the enterprising inhabitants of a new world. To appreciate the benefits unavoidably accruing from one of the greatest undertakings ever attempted in any part of the globe, it is merely necessary to take a deliberate view of a map of the United States, and their vicinage-the vast western regions-the lakes, and immense unknown tracts bordering upon them the Hudson and Mohawk rolling their accumulated waters through the heart of a country exuberant of the bounties of nature, and advancing with gigantic strides to a state of luxuriant cultivation rivaling the fair and flourishing fields of the most favoured nations of the European continent. These will be sufficient to show to the eye of discernment that the canal, so boldly undertaken, so vigorously pursued, is no idle scheme, and that if ambition has had any share in its promotion, it is an ambition no less honourable to the nation by which it has been fostered, than to the individuals in whom it has been engendered. The author of the work before us has given so ample, energetic, and comprehensive a view of the political reasonings that have induced the commencement of the canal, that we feel particular pleasure in making the following quotation from his ingenious work. "The interest which is excited throughout this country, and in the minds of some of the first statesmen and public characters in Europe, in relation to the great works of inland navigation which are now vigorously prosecuted under the patronage of the NewYork state government, renders it necessary to give an occasional exposition of the progress and success of our vast but practicable undertakings. "Like all great projects, embracing in their scope the prosperity and welfare of states and empires, the grand canal from the Hudson to the lakes has come in for a share of obloquy and reprehension. By the weak and timid it has been viewed as a visionary project of state grandeur; by the base and designing it has been denounced as an attempt at popularity. Experience will detect the error and crimiColbert, in conjunction with the celebrated nality of both imputations. When the great engineer, M. Riquet, undertook to connect the Mediterranean sea with the Atlantic ocean, by the canal of Languedoc, to aid in building up the marine of France, and to fortify an independent commercial system; his plan was viewed by many with astonishment and derision. Yet does this canal stand as the most honourable monument of the illustrious reign of Louis XIV. But few great benefactors of their age have received the immediate tribute of gratitude and applause due to their distinguished services. It is time that consecrates their deeds, as immoveable landmarks in the history of civilization. "Internal navigation will hereafter constitute one of the primary objects of our state and national policy. Many inevitable causes have heretofore detracted from that attention which is at all times due to its magnitude and importance. We are yet an infant nation. When we emerged from the conflicts of the revolution, we had a great national debt to pay, and a new government to organize and sustain. Foreign commerce afforded the natural and ready means to accomplish these ends, and it was pursued with success to the exclusion of any regular system of internal trade. The tremendous commotions of the belligerent world favoured this exclusive policy, until the flagrant depredations of the European powers, and the war which they produced, swept our commerce from the ocean. Our commercial relations are now assuming a more permanent character, and we shall gradually extend them until they grasp the boundaries of the maritime world, by the bold and vigorous application of our internal resources. "It is unnecessary in this place to dwell with much detail on the vast importance of an extensive and vigorous system of inland trade. Its vital importance is amply elucidated by almost every eminent writer who has taken up his pen to instruct nations in their commercial pursuits. The home trade,' says Vattel, is of vast use. It furnishes all the citizens with the means of procuring what they want, as either necessary, useful, or agreeable. It causes a circulation of money, creates industry, animates labour, and by affording subsistence to a great number of subjects, contributes to render the country more populous and flourishing. In fine, this commerce being of advantage to the nation, it is obliged, as a duty to itself, to render it prosperous. Adam Smith observes, in his Wealth of Nations, that good roads and canals and navigable rivers, by diminishing the expense of carriage, put the remote parts of the country more nearly apon a level with those in the neighbour hood of large towns; and on that account they are the greatest of all improvements. But commercial prosperity is not the only advantage to be derived from such means to promote internal trade-while they lead to national happiness and national strength, they cement together a wide spread com "Vide p. 69, Laws Nations. "Vol. i. p. 229. munity, not only by the strong ties of inte rest, but also by every social tie that can bind together an enlightened and powerful people. Who that has glanced his eye over the map of our extensive country Who that remembers the strong local features that bear the everlasting impress of nature's own hand, but perceives the palpable ne cessity of such affinities? Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson saw it. The most distinguished statesmen of this and of every other country now see it. Our mountains must be politically annihilated. Our sec tional barriers must be swept away by a moral arm, whose power is resistless. Our manners, our habits, our principles, our political maxims and our most pervading sympathies, must wear an aspect that is settled, uniform and consistent. Nothing but this can perpetuate that union that is to guaran tee our future national greatness. Nothing but this can preserve those popular institutions which are sealed with our fathers' blood. Nothing but this can carry us along to that height of glory which breaks upon our gaze through the vista of futurity, and beckons us to its cloudless summit. Nay, on this subject, we can almost hear the voice of distant generations speaking in supplications loud as the thunders of a higher world. But let us quote the opinions of men whose names impart a consequence to their sentiments that is worthy to be held in constant remembrance. We shall begin with Albert Gallatin. The inconvenience, complaints, and perhaps dangers,' says this able statesinan, which may result from a vast extent of territory, can no otherwise be radically removed or prevented than by opening speedy and easy communications through all its parts. Good roads and canals will shorten distances, facilitate commercial and personal intercourse, and unite, by a still more intimate community of interests, the remote sections of the United States. No other single operation within the power of government, can more effectu ally tend to strengthen and perpetuate that union which secures external independence, domestic peace, and internal liberty." The next great man we shall quote is Joel Barlow. He observes, that public improve ments, such as roads and canals, are usually considered only in a commercial and economical point of light; but they ought also to be regarded in a moral and political light. The means to be relied on to hold this be neficent union together, must apply directly to the interest and convenience of the peo ple. They must at the same time enable them to discern that interest, and be sensible of that convenience. The people must become habituated to enjoy a visible, palpable, and incontestible good; greater good than they could promise themselves by any change. They must have information enough to perceive it, to reason upon it, "Report on Public Roads and Canals, 1807. |